Additional infoRecorded in May of 2007 at the Basement Studios in Winston Salem, NC.
Engineered, mixed and mastered by Jamie King.
Produced by Jamie King and Between the Buried and Me.
Layout designed by Brandon Proff for Pixel Nation.

The past Between The Buried And Me albums saw the band slowly improving on their trademark style, honing their skills in small iterations and progressively becoming more interesting. Alaska, with its intelligent song writing and occasional bursts of genius, already seemed like it could be the pinnacle of the band's evolution; however, this is just because we haven't heard Colors at that point. It only takes the first two minutes of this album to completely shatter all expectations and leave the listener wide eyed and with a gaping chasm where their mouth used to be.

This is one of the best progressive metal albums ever; a second generation 'Images and Words'. 'Colors' is definately a front-to-back album: every riff, every drum fill - all of it is spot-on. BTBAM blends tasteful melodies with nasty metal riffs; simple elements with extremely complex parts (without being over-the-top). 'Informal Gluttony' is a personal favorite, a track that is as close to straight-forward as BTBAM gets but still packed full of loops and twists and turns.

Between the Buried and Me's best album, they have yet to top this masterpiece, with the two releases since. Second favourite album of all time. Got to love how everything on this album flows together there is even managed to put in a hoe down.

However, every time they attempt "brutality" to appease their simple-minded fan base, their riffs become mindless and the low growls destroy the atmosphere and sound amateur.

So "brutal" music is just for simple-minded listeners, whatever that means? That's very elitist from your part.

Not to mention untrue.

Probably worth mentioning that my statement was interpreted incorrectly. Notice I put brutality in inverted commas, indicating that their attempt was flawed. Their "brutality" aspect is primitive and is out of context. Properly executed brutality can be integrated such that the music flows and does not, in this case, lose its complexity and atmosphere.

I'm simply stating that I feel they slide in some heavier parts (which lack thought imo) in order to for those that can only appreciate "brutal" music to enjoy their songs.

Probably worth mentioning that my statement was interpreted incorrectly. Notice I put brutality in inverted commas, indicating that their attempt was flawed. Their "brutality" aspect is primitive and is out of context. Properly executed brutality can be integrated such that the music flows and does not, in this case, lose it's complexity and atmosphere.

I'm simply stating that I feel they slide in some heavier parts (which lack thought imo) in order to for those that can only appreciate "brutal" music to enjoy their songs.

Seems you misinterpeted my statement as well, since that is entirely untrue. It's quite the opposite effect that BTBAM put on here. They focus all their technique on the "brutal" aspects, I've always interpeted the softer parts (like the poppish sound in Sun of Nothing and the soft vocalization in Informal Gluttony) to be preformed as a show of skill and versitality that the band has. Regardless, BTBAM perform to apex ability on this album, soft or brutal.

Probably worth mentioning that my statement was interpreted incorrectly. Notice I put brutality in inverted commas, indicating that their attempt was flawed. Their "brutality" aspect is primitive and is out of context. Properly executed brutality can be integrated such that the music flows and does not, in this case, lose it's complexity and atmosphere.

I'm simply stating that I feel they slide in some heavier parts (which lack thought imo) in order to for those that can only appreciate "brutal" music to enjoy their songs.

Seems you misinterpeted my statement as well, since that is entirely untrue. It's quite the opposite effect that BTBAM put on here. They focus all their technique on the "brutal" aspects, I've always interpeted the softer parts (like the poppish sound in Sun of Nothing and the soft vocalization in Informal Gluttony) to be preformed as a show of skill and versitality that the band has. Regardless, BTBAM perform to apex ability on this album, soft or brutal.

To some extent I agree that some songs are based are the heavy sounds, but not all the heavy sections are detrimental to the quality. The one's which incorporate melody or groove into the riffing reflect music effort. The remaining distorted parts (e.g. the start of (B) The Decade of Statues) are ultimately generic and I view them as filler. Listen to Ants of the Sky, there are a myriad of considerably well thought out heavy riffs, barring a few such as the one from the 5 minute mark to 5:23.

Probably worth mentioning that my statement was interpreted incorrectly. Notice I put brutality in inverted commas, indicating that their attempt was flawed. Their "brutality" aspect is primitive and is out of context. Properly executed brutality can be integrated such that the music flows and does not, in this case, lose it's complexity and atmosphere.

Oh ok, got it. I don't feel those sections as such over here though, I'm all good with the band going for some simple sections at times so they don't overload the songs with melodic/harmonic complexity, which bothers me sometimes. Also, they have lots of sections during the songs, so a few seconds of generic hardcore riffing don't bother me at all.
Anyway, I remember that in my first listens I though something like that, that the songs were just chaos with interesting parts placed in between Now it's among the few records I consider perfect.

Probably worth mentioning that my statement was interpreted incorrectly. Notice I put brutality in inverted commas, indicating that their attempt was flawed. Their "brutality" aspect is primitive and is out of context. Properly executed brutality can be integrated such that the music flows and does not, in this case, lose it's complexity and atmosphere.

Oh ok, got it. I don't feel those sections as such over here though, I'm all good with the band going for some simple sections at times so they don't overload the songs with melodic/harmonic complexity, which bothers me sometimes. Also, they have lots of sections during the songs, so a few seconds of generic hardcore riffing don't bother me at all.
Anyway, I remember that in my first listens I though something like that, that the songs were just chaos with interesting parts placed in between Now it's among the few records I consider perfect.

Hopefully a few more spins and I might be able to appreciate the songs as wholes rather than segments Similarly when I started to listen to metal, I despised anything but clean singing. Then tolerance led to enjoyment of growls...strange how perceptions evolve

In any case, I simply wish that all the heavy parts would be melodic and groovy, not necessarily complex. However, considering my musical taste, this probably isn't applicable to everyone....

It took me a VERY long time to warm up to BTBAM, since I was so stubborn towards any music with any trace of metalcore period, but once I bought this album, that's all been changed for the better, this band goes above and beyond all the typical metalcore artists. Awesome album, Ants in the Sky is probably my favorite, if not White Walls.

I haven't listened to this album album in quite a while so I almost forgot how great it is. "Colors" introduced me to Between the Buried and Me and turned me into the ardent admirer of their music.
The thing is, before listening to this record for the first time, I couldn't have guessed that there is some kind of metalcore I can come to enjoy.

Just extraordinary. They certainly have released consistently excellent music since and certainly aren't weighed down by this effort, but it's always good to have a classic in your back catalogue, and any album containing Sun Of Nothing, Ants Of The Sky, Prequel To The Sequel AND WHITE fucking WALLS will fall into the 'classic' folder. What a band